“Successful and Productive” Meeting for Eco-Action

Following yesterday’s meeting with President Graham Spanier, Vice President for Student Affairs Damon Sims, and Steve Maruszewski from the Office of Physical Plant, Eco-Action feels that the foundation has been established to allow student involvement in the administrative efforts toward campus sustainability.

Current emissions goals enacted in 2004 are set to expire, and Eco-Action sought to make students a presence in plans for the future. According to Eco-Action’s Greenpeace Student Representative Braden Crooks, President Spanier is very keen on making their goal a reality. A follow-up meeting with Sims and Maruszewski has also been scheduled to discuss new emission goal and to establish a student commission.

Crooks also noted that the administration is still undecided regarding the fate of the West Campus Coal Plant. The administration is considering moving towards natural gas as the University’s primary energy source, but the official decision will not be announced until January.

While for now there are no official plans for future campus sustainability, the meeting was still a success for a collaboration Eco-Action and University administration. As mentioned previously, the club hoped this meeting would help begin a relationship between administration and students.

“The administration seems very willing to include students,” said Crooks. “To this point we haven’t felt that we’ve been included enough. We’re going to continue to push Penn State to be ambitious with setting these goals, and we’re looking forward to helping them set them.”

The University has not returned our request for a comment as of yet, but if one is received we will update the post.

Are you pleased with the success of Eco-Action’s meeting? What would you like to see the University do in the near future in regards to campus sustainability?

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